Tough day to be a vehicle in Middletown

Saturday

Apr 5, 2014 at 7:43 PM

A car and a minivan each sustained serious damages in almost completely opposite ways during a pair of unrelated incidents that occurred within hours of each other in Middletown late Saturday afternoon.

By Scott Gossscott.goss@doverpost.com@MiddletownScott

A car and a minivan each sustained serious damages in almost completely opposite ways during a pair of unrelated incidents that occurred within hours of each other in Middletown late Saturday afternoon.

In the first incident, a 71-year-old Middletown woman drove her Mini Cooper off of eastbound Bunker Hill Road and into a stormwater pond near the U.S. Route 301 intersection with just after 4 p.m.

Middletown police said the woman suffered an undisclosed medical emergency that contributed to the crash, but was not injured.

She was taken to the Middletown Emergency Department and later released, police said. No charges have been filed

The eastbound lanes of Bunker Hill Road were closed for about 30 minutes.

A tow truck eventually was able to pull the car from the pond about 90 minutes after the crash.

Less than a half hour after police cleared the scene of that incident, firefighters were called to the scene of a burning minivan at the Cricklewood Grove Shopping Center off South Broad Street.

The 2000 Dodge Caravan was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived just before 6 p.m.

The blaze was brought under control in about ten minutes, but not before it completely gutted the vehicle.

“I had just stopped to get my nails done and was inside for no more than 10 minutes when one of the ladies said she saw smoke pouring out of my van,” said the owner of the minivan, a Townsend woman who declined to give her name. “I went out and opened the door and saw flames on the passenger side floor but I couldn’t put it out. By then the smoke was too much.”

The woman said she had just paid $1,400 to have new tires, brakes and other repairs made to the vehicle last month.

“It was fully insured but it’s probably not worth $3,000 total,” she said. “The important thing is that I wasn’t in it when it happened. You can always buy another car.”